Contraption

Gold marked 925 Italy means sterling silver with gold plating.

I don’t know but the second photo looks plated to me. You can see those lines or ridges just doesn’t look right. 

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Contraption, we really appreciate your desire to help. I recommend that you keep in mind that this forum has world class experts in the subject from actual experience. Gary is not a prospector nor is Andy Sabisch. Reading is fine. Seeing is fine. All I can say is I know my stuff better than most after doing this for 45 years, but I pay attention when Jeff and others post. Jeff knows more about gold prospecting than both Gary and Andy together will ever know. I’m not putting them down and if asked, they’d agree. If you want to go beyond what they know about gold prospecting, this is the place for it. Just food for thought.

So show ,me a better video on tuning the Deus for nugget hunting. Criticism is fine to a point but sometime you gotta produce the goods. I'm happy to watch it and learn. That video Jeff showed is not it. 

I'm certainly not here to get in an argument. I got this info and video info from the Andy Sabisch book "THE XP DEUS HANDBOOK".

"Mastering the Gold Field Program...How to Set it up in the field

Reading about something is one thing but getting to see how something is done often clarifies what might have been totally frustrating. Gary Blackwell put together a first-rate video on the Depar DPR-600 which is a detector built specifically for gold prospecting on the Deus chassis. The program it uses is the same as the Gold Field program found on the Deus..." 

I put this info out to help the original poster. It helped me and I want to share it. 

Depar is the same as the Gold FIeld program. That's where it came from. I like Gary's video. Best one I have seen. Very good for someone who is learning the program. If you have a beef with Gary please don't take it out on me. I got enough of my own pain and misery. 

I'm one of the few people I know who even use the Gold Field program. Most people got the All-metal phobia. It's super deep and other programs can't touch it, but it does hit on deep iron. Listen for the Zip Zip. 

If I'm in a city park I cross check deep targets with another program. If I can't hear it I don't dig unless it's a really hot area. I learned it by taking an hour each time out. That's about all I can handle in trashy area, just gets overwhelming on the ears. 

And a little IAR is nice to break up some of the ferrous stuff.

Also there is a Ground Notch to help notch out hot rocks.

Here is a good video on tuning the Gold Field program. Note the DPR 600 uses the same program as found on the Deus and ORX.

Not all hippies were love and peace. Many were very anti-American I guess mostly due to the war in Viet Nam. 

Recall that guy on Laugh-In TV series was dressed in the German garb. Many hippies had necklaces and other jewlery with that type cross. I don't know where it became popular, TV or movies probably. Don't know much about bikers.

Late 1960's these were popular with the hippie types. Don't know about this one. 

The virus had to slow things down to a stop. Now they probably have plenty of other pressing issues. 

3 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

The safety hazard probably has little to do with electrical safety but the fact that lithium ion cell batteries are inherently thermally unstable and if the packaging is breached as a result of corrosive intrusion of say, salt water, into the battery compartment or mechanical damage to the battery pack (say from a poorly placed cutting blade) a thermal runaway fire could result.  So while the risk is low, the consequence could be high.  Whether XP Is overstating the risk, who knows.  If you know what you are doing, great.  If you don't, it is no laughing matter.

Okay I think you are right. FIre hazard can hurt other people as well. 

P.S> RobNC, geez man, cool off. Just a joke and not meant against you. 

So you think XP is lying when they say there is a safety issue? I suspect you were not standing in water when you got bit. Big difference there. I admit I don't know what electronics they have inside but I trust they know what they are saying. I recall a joke, a redmeck's last words, "Hey, Y'all, watch this!"

The Deus instruction manual says: "The searxh coil battery is sealed for obvious reasons--safety and impermeability. It must be returned to our service department or an XP distributor for replacement.

That replacement video is from several years ago. XP probably figured out peope were messing it up or worse.  I'd totally say don't risk your health and safety.  

You can buy a diamond tester on ebay for cheap like $10 -$15. It puts a tiny amount of heat on it and then checks the heat conductivity. Also you can breathe on it so it fogs up. If the fog dissapates right away it could be real. Look with high power magnifying glass to see if any scratches--diamonds should not have any. Also the edges of the facets should be very sharp. You can find articles on-line as to how to check for authenticity, but a good jeweler probably your best option. 

I hope it's allowed to disagree here. People have their biases and everybody with much experience thinks they know it all. Point is every detector is different and needs to be treated as such. There's a youtube channel Gold Diggers MD from Australia the guy says the ORX with the Elliptical coil easily beats the Gold Bug, Equinox, and the Gold Monster on small gold. Now I admit the soil is different there. I also know the XP detectors need to be adjusted correctly. There are some youtube videos by Gary Blackwell. The Depar is the forrunner of the ORX. Not that hard to adjust if you know how. I've watched many videos where the person was doing comparative testing and they start the detector up with the coil on the ground or worse yet have another detecter running nearby when doing the comparison. Gotta have it away from any metal, and the manual doesn't explain it that well. Hold it three feet off the ground when starting up for 15 seconds. 

Whenever I hear somebody say their new detector does not work well I know it's because they don't have it set right. Just recently I read some posts on another forum said the Equinox would not hit a gold coin buried 5 inches. Another poster said the same thing about silver coins but that it hit pull tabs and pennies just fine. The answer given was send the detector back for repair. 

The XP Skill School might be worth a watch. You can hear the performance differences on small targets using the various frequencies. 

I haven't used either of these XP coils but I have a 9" X35 and have a 5 x 8 elliptical on my AT Gold. At times I could have used something smaller in trashy areas. But the 9" running 25KHz can pick up tiny targets. Also have heard the ORX with the elliptical  will beat the Gold Bug and Gold Monster on small targets. 

What are you using it for? Gold nuggets in highly mineralised ground the 5 x 9 1/2 is going to work better on small nuggets. But the 9 inch coils still hit tiny targets and get good seperation. There are some youtube videos. 

7 hours ago, Jackpine said:

I wish the Equinox had a coil with those dimensions.  It looks slim therefore more appropriate for water hunting than the big bulky Nox coil.

The 11" coil is one of the main reasons I didn't get a ML. Not just the size but weight, too. The 5 x 8 on the AT Gold is nice but still too long in trashy areas. I liked the 5" on the Sovereign. Add three more inches and just makes it more problem. Besides that long dimension adds little or no depth to the coil. So if you are in a pasture or something yeah it will cover more ground. A bigger coil causes more interference and harder to ground balance so usually needs to be detuned.  

I don't know about the coil. Looks a bit strange. Many time a compromise doesn't do any good. I have a 5 x 8 and at times I wish it was smaller than 8". 

It looks nice. I own an AT Gold. This one pretty much obsoletes it. If I had a wish list I would like different, the discrimination segments not  my favorite. Much prefer single segements rather than groups of five. Also no reactivity adjustment probably my biggest beef. But no doubt this is a vast improvement over the other Ace machines. 

Gary has a video on the non-motion modes. Notice he first says "get a threshold." (TUNE is the same as Threshold)  He is using Non Motion Audio DISC but there is a Non Motion AM (All Metal) which I use for checking targets.The idea is to listen for the short, sharp response of a non-ferrous. Sometimes the aluminum alloys will show themselves, too. 

I see they sell ibuprofen cream over the counter in places like Europe. Here in USA you need a prescription. Never tried it but my knee is calling for help.. LOL 

I see InstaFlex has a cream now. I guess you tried it already. Get a Deus. ORX is lighter yet, and then the elliptical coil is even lighter. 

I had cortisone shots in my elbow. Right at the pain site, I told the doctor I need something to put between my teeth next time He laughed and said "Bite the bullet." Easy for him to say. Then I got a strap with a gel pad on it. That helped some. You might look into some joint supplement like Insta-Flex. Do your own search there. I'm allergic to most of that stuff with shellfish in it. But it helped. Mainly use it for my knee. Also got some InvigoFlexGS. Other than that maybe try a lighter detector The XP Deus (or ORX) are so light.   

P.S. I don't like taking cortisone shots. I think it is bad for my immune system--my allergies flared up.